Chicago — the windy city. I would love to take a month-long vacation there (ha, if I could afford it) as I’m certain I would not run out of new places to see, events to attend and fabulous restaurants to savor. Such a great town.
After spening six days there last week, my list of “things I want to do in Chicago” kept getting longer and longer. Of the many things I was able to do on this trip, was an unexpected highlight — a Chicago Food Planet Food Tour.
It is an absolute MUST for your next trip to Chicago!
My beautiful neice, Eliza, who now lives in Chicago, joined me on the three hour walking tour (no Gilligan reference intended).
Leslie would have been with us if she wasn’t suffering from a severe case of food poisoning that you can read about here. I felt so bad for her, she had to check herself back into the hotel where we had attended the blogging conference just so she could have some privacy while she worked through …. you get the idea.
Back to the food tour — we chose the “Near North Food Tasting & Cultural Walking Tour” that started at a tiny place called Ashkenaz Deli. There were 16 of us on the tour, the weather was perfect, partly sunny and not too hot, and the tour was lead by my sister’s life-long, best friend’s daughter. Did you follow that? Anyway, her name is Jesse and I’ve known her her whole life. She’s a gorgeous college student living in Chicago and this is her part-time job.
This is Jesse pointing out some important architectural feature that I don’t recall because I was too busy trying to get a good picture of her with my IPhone. But this next building I do remember very well:
This is the very first Playboy mansion. Hef lived in Chicago long before he moved to L.A. and this was his palace. He had a staff of 45.
Again, I don’t recall who owns this place now as I was busy taking pictures with my IPhone and not listening to Jesse.
We were given food samples at every shop and restaurant we went to — all of them locally owned businesses that the average tourist would NEVER find on their own. That’s what made this tour so incredible. We were given an architectural tour in between special food and beverage treats. It is the best way to see Chicago.
We went to a tea store, a spice house, an olive oil and balsalmic vinegar store, a chocolate shop, a famous catering and gourmet foods store, and finally, to a real Chicago-style pizza restaurant. The stuffed spinach pizza was worth the entire three hour trip. Bacinos’ Pizza — just go next time you’re in Chicago.
We walked through a neighborhood park called Oz. It’s named after the movie and each of the main characters are featured in huge statues throughout the park. I asked a fellow tourist, a mother who was with her college-aged daughter, to take our photo. My guess is that she couldn’t see the screen of my IPhone becasue it was so sunny in the park.
Nothing like a perfect picture of the Tin Man’s backside.
Ah, vacations.
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